XFX GeForce GTX 260 (Core 216) Black Edition 896MB video card review

It's fair to say that 2008 hasn't been the best of years for NVIDIA, between their faulty GPU dramas and, perhaps more importantly, AMD snatching the initiative from them in the graphics market, catching them cold with a change of strategy that has paid dividends for much of the year since the launch of the Radeon HD 4800 series.

However, NVIDIA have never been a company to take such setbacks lying down, and recent months in particular have seen the GPU manufacturer fighting back on several fronts.  Perhaps one of the more notable changes to bring them back into the competition was the introduction of a new revision to their GeForce GTX 260 part, dubbed the Core 216 and enabling another cluster of Stream Processors to allow it to compete better against AMD's Radeon HD 4870.

It's just such a part that we take a look at today, in the form of XFX's GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition.  While our first foray into Black Edition territory, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ Black Edition, didn't quite set our pulses racing as we've been used to with XFX offerings in the past, today's review promises a more adrenaline fuelled high-end gaming experience - So, join us as we take the GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition for a spin to see how it all pans out.